Tag: Trump impeachment

Fox News uses bizarre graphics to smear impeachment witnesses in real time

AlterNet logoSaying that Fox News is a mouthpiece for right-wing disinformation is not a revelatory statement. But the depth of the network’s entanglement with conservative forces cannot be understated. As the first public impeachment hearings take place Wednesday, Fox News has made it clear that, as much as possible, it will lean on the scales to present damning testimony against Donald Trump in a perverse light.

It might seem like satire but as Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff opened the proceedings, Fox News put up graphics alongside Schiff’s face with “information” like: “House GOP has supported censuring Schiff for actions during inquiry;” “9/26: Schiff publicly exaggerated substance of Trump-Zelensky call; “10/13: Schiff admitted to not being clear about contact w/ whistleblower.” If Fox News could, it would likely play ominous music beneath the proceedings any time a Democratic official spoke.

The same treatment was afforded to acting Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor during his opening statement. Similar graphics presented “factoids” like: “Oct 23: President Trump dismissed Taylor as a ‘Never Trumper;’ “WH called Taylor’s closed-door testimony ‘Triple hearsay;’ “GOP says Taylor had no first-hand knowledge about Ukraine aid.”

View the complete November 13 article by Walter Einenkel from Daily Kos on the AlterNet website here.

Twitter Users Burn Eric Trump For Calling Impeachment Hearing ‘Boring’

One Twitter user suggested the reason the president’s son finds the hearing dull is because “extortion and being a traitor for Putin” is an everyday thing for a Trump.

The first public impeachment hearing for President Donald Trump is definitely a major moment in American history, but don’t tell that to the president’s son Eric Trump or White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Both Trump’s second-born son and his third press secretary took to Twitter on Wednesday to criticize the hearing, with acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent, for being dull.

First, Grisham called the hearing “boring” and offered suggestions on what Congress should be doing instead of investigating a president for high crimes and misdemeanors.

View the complete November 13 article by David Moye on the Huffington Post website here. 

How Trump supporters justify supporting the president in full knowledge that he’s a criminal

AlterNet logoIt’s been nearly two months since Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and Republicans still haven’t figured out a way to justify their predetermined conclusion: Trump is innocent. Their problem, of course, is the overwhelming evidence that Trump personally conducted an extortion and bribery scheme against Ukraine’s political leadership. As the record clearly shows, he threatened to withhold military aid and promised a White House visit in order to strong-arm President Volodymyr Zelensky into backing Trump’s false accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic Party leaders.

On Tuesday morning, the Republicans unveiled their supposed impeachment defense strategy, which amounts to little more than a command that Trump’s defenders in Congress keep a straight face while lying their heads off. GOP House leadership circulated a memo making flat-out laughable claims, such as the claim that the now-infamous July 25 call between Trump and Zelensky “shows no conditionality or evidence of pressure,” even though Trump literally says, “I would like you to do us a favor though” immediately after Zelensky asks him to release aid that Congress had already authorized. Continue reading “How Trump supporters justify supporting the president in full knowledge that he’s a criminal”

GOP senator: Republicans don’t have votes to dismiss impeachment articles

The Hill logoSen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to Senate Republican leadership, says there are not enough votes in the Senate to immediately dismiss any articles of impeachment passed by the House against President Trump.

Republicans have discussed the possibility of quickly dismissing charges against Trump, which would just require 51 votes. But Cornyn said that would be a difficult hurdle for the GOP, which holds 53 seats in the Senate.

“There’s some people talking about trying to stop the bill, dismiss charges basically as soon as they get over here. I think that’s not going to happen. That would require 51 votes,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday.

View  the complete November 13 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.

Hill staffers in both parties overwhelmingly believe Trump headed for impeachment

But both sides also agree the Senate won’t remove the president from office

If Donald Trump’s presidency feels like a roller-coaster ride, with each hair-raising turn of events quickly giving way to a new one — and opinions about him constantly in motion — the results of CQ Roll Call’s Capitol Insiders Survey in 2019 buttress that view.

Few congressional staffers thought, at the beginning of the year, that Trump was headed for impeachment. But the results of CQ Roll Call’s October poll are unambiguous: Staffers in both parties overwhelmingly believe Trump will become the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

Still, impeachment is proving deeply divisive, with Republicans characterizing it as nothing more than a partisan witch hunt, while Democrats insist the presidency’s integrity is truly at stake.

View the complete November 13 article by Shawn Zeller on The Roll Call website here.

As impeachment hearings open, Trump downplays the moment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Professing disinterest, President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was “too busy” doing the people’s business to watch the impeachment hearings that imperil his presidency. But even as Trump tried to suggest he was above the fray, the president tweeted two dozen times before noon laying out his grievances about the process playing out on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

And Trump could not resist taking a swipe at one of his political foes as he sat next to another world leader in the Oval Office.

“It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax, I’m too busy to watch it,” Trump told reporters. “There’s nothing there. I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers, they took some guys off television. You know, I’m not surprised to see it, because Schiff can’t do his own questions.”

View the complete November 13 article by Jonathan LeMire and Jill Colvin on the Associated Press website here.

Democrats announce public impeachment hearings with eight witnesses next week

The Hill logoHouse Democrats on Tuesday announced a spate of additional hearings for next week as part of the public phase of their impeachment inquiry as they seek to make the case that President Trump pressured a foreign government for his political benefit.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said the committee expected to hear on Tuesday from key witnesses such as Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council (NSC), and Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Pence. The panel also plans to hear from Kurt Volker, former special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, a top NSC official.

Schiff said on Wednesday that lawmakers plan to hear from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who revised his testimony to say he believed the president “likely” conditioned nearly $400 million in aid to opening such probes. Later that afternoon, they will hear from top Defense official Laura Cooper, who testified about decisions to withhold the aid, and David Hale, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.

View the complete November 12 article by Olivia Beavers on The Hill website here.

New testimony adds 2 stunning and previously unknown details about the Ukraine quid pro quo

AlterNet logoNew testimony released Monday from the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the Ukraine scandal included at least two new stunning details about the quid pro quo scheme at the heart of the matter.

Overall, the transcripts for depositions of Catherine Croft and Christopher Anderson, who were advisers to U.S. envoy Kurt Volker, built on the story of that we already know: that President Donald Trump pushed a shadow foreign policy to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political opponents, a scheme that involved using his office and military aid as leverage over the country in opposition to the official policy.

But testimony from Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, included two new details about the scheme that we hadn’t previously been aware of.

View the complete November 12 article by Cody Fenwick on the AlterNet website here.

“This is a very strong case of bribery’: Democrat Jackie Speier explains why the evidence against Trump is ‘very simple’

AlterNet logoThis past weekend, Republicans went on the news shows to try and spin Trump’s treasonous, criminal, impeachable offenses as president, as alternately something everybody is doing, and … crimes aren’t crimes. Honestly, that’s basically it. Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier of California is on the House Intelligence Committee that is getting to sit in and watch a parade of government officials testify to about the garbage fire that is our current president’s administration. Since the conservative disinformation team is out in full force, so must Democratic officials spend time “making their case” to the public about how and why Donald Trump broke the law and should be impeached.

The traditional media, for their part, is restrained in its capacity to simply tell the truth because of a perverse belief that simply having a second opinion means you have an opinion worth sharing—regardless of the irrefutable facts. Rep. Speier went on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to remind everyone that while much of the testimony connected to this impeachment inquiry has been behind closed doors, what has already leaked makes for a very plain and simple case of criminal, impeachable action on the part of Donald Trump. Having been asked how this is different from the Mueller report, Speier tried to remind the world that getting bogged down in BS is the only reason Trump wasn’t impeached 1,000 times already. Continue reading ““This is a very strong case of bribery’: Democrat Jackie Speier explains why the evidence against Trump is ‘very simple’”

‘You will find it tantalizing!’ Trump gets mocked for a desperate attempt to distract from his Ukraine scheme

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump’s anxiety, as measured by number of tweets, seems to be approaching all-time highs. Monday, hours after giving a Veterans Day speech in his hometown of New York, surrounded by banners in windows and on buildings calling for his impeachment and removal, Trump took to Twitter and had yet another meltdown.

“In order to continue being the most Transparent President in history, I will be releasing sometime this week the Transcript of the first, and therefore most important, phone call I had with the President of Ukraine,” Trump tweeted Monday night. “I am sure you will find it tantalizing!”

Of course, that is the call nobody is talking about. The call that led to the impeachment inquiry is the infamous July 25 call, which Trump repeatedly has insisted everyone should “read the transcript” from, despite the fact he has never released the transcript.

View the complete November 12 article by David Badash from the New Civil Rights Movement on the AlterNet website here.